The present invention relates to bookmarks, and more specifically to adjustable bookmarks for use with paperback and hard cover books.
Providing a simple, attractive and effective bookmark which is retained in the book to prevent loss or misplacement and is capable of being used with paperbacks as well as hard cover books has been a long standing problem which has faced the book industry. Various approaches have been tried to provide a bookmark which solves this long lasting problem. Perhaps the first approach was to place a single marker beteen the pages. Another approach was to provide a clip-on marker. A third approach was to affix a ribbon type marker to the binding of a book.
Various other bookmark constructions are also known. U.S. Pat. No. 2,716,390 to A. L. Goins discloses a belt and buckle arrangement which extends around the pages and one cover of a book with a slidable arrow affixed to the belt to mark a particular point on a page. U.S. Pat. No. 3,020,876 to K. R. Riden discloses a combination bookmark and loose-leaf binder including a plastic strip with a thread and eyelet for positioning the loose-leaf binder between the binding and the adjacent cover portion of a hard cover book.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,951 to G. M. Clare discloses a bookmark in the form of an integral stretchable elastic member having a marker portion which extends upwardly in a potentially dangerous manner which may snag on objects. Further, the marker portion extends downwardly a substantial distance from the bottom of the book and includes Velcro at its end to mate with another Velcro member on the loop portion of the elastic member. U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,892 to M. V. Nichols discloses a bookmark utilizing a plurality of elastic loops for attaching to the cover of a book with a plurality of markers affixed to the elastic loops to mark the pages of a book. The elastic loops are rotated to prevent unnecessary portions of the markers from extending beyond the bottom of the book. The elastic nature of these bookmarks makes them unsuitable for use with paperbacks.
None of the foregoing approaches have completely solved the aforementioned long standing problem of providing a simple, attractive and effective bookmark which is retained in the book to prevent loss or misplacement and is capable of being used with paperbacks as well as hard cover books.